Where the Peaches Grow | Atlanta Hawks

[supahotfire]

Where the Peaches Grow
Atlanta Hawks Basketball
▰▰▰

---

Mar 4, 2026 / Regular Season Game
Atlanta Hawks at Milwaukee Bucks / Fiserv Forum
Daniels Career Night Lifts Hawks Past Short-Handed Bucks, 112-101
Atlanta increased their lead over Milwaukee in the playoff race with a win Wednesday night where Giannis was sidelined. The Hawks got a career night from Dyson Daniels, who led his team in scoring with 23 points, including a career-high 5-of-10 from three.

112 101

Starting Lineups
Nickeil Alexander-Walker - PG - Kevin Porter Jr.
Dyson Daniels - SG - Cam Thomas
Zaccharie Risacher - SF - Gary Harris
Jalen Johnson - PF - Thanasis Antetokounmpo
Onyeka Okongwu - C - Myles Turner


Hawks Highlight: Dyson Daniels pokes the ball lose to propel his way to a rim-rattling fast break stuff!

Atlanta Hawks (31-32) FG: 45% | 3PM: 30% (11/33) | FT: 72% (18/25) | TO: 15 G Dyson Daniels: 23 pts, 5 reb, 3 stl, 9-14 FG, 5-10 3PT F Jalen Johnson: 22 pts, 13 reb, 4 ast, 6-16 FG, 5-10 FT C Onyeka Okongwu: 15 pts, 13 reb, 1 blk, 6-12 FG, 3-4 FT G Buddy Hield: 14 pts, 2 ast, 6-7 FG, 2-2 3PT F Jonathan Kuminga: 14 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 5-11 FG, 4-4 FT

Milwaukee Bucks (25-36) FG: 36% | 3PM: 28% (11/40) | FT: 78% (18/23) | TO: 9 G Cam Thomas: 23 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 5-14 3PT G Kevin Porter Jr.: 20 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 7-22 FG F Kyle Kuzma: 19 pts, 7 reb, 9-12 FG, 1-2 3PT C Myles Turner: 16 pts, 17 reb, 3 stl, 2 blk, 6-10 FG F Thanasis Antetokounmpo: 7 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 5 stl

▰▰▰

Injury Report
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Rest)
Taurean Prince (Neck)
Jericho Sims (Rest)

▰▰▰

Chipping In
CJ McCollum (9 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 4-9 FG) and Nickeil Alexander-Walker (5 pts, 9 reb, 7 ast, 2-12 FG) also provided a boost to the Hawks in the win, despite poor shooting nights. Zaccharie Risacher also provided support with a rare line of 3/3/3/3 in points, rebounds, assists, and steals.

[supahotfire]

prolly doing a draft class or a mailbag update next, so get your Q's in...

[The Hunted]

What position are you looking to upgrade in the draft or FA, or will it be BPA?

[Agent]

Nice job pulling out the dub. KPJ was chucking but with that squad the Bucks had.. he had to.

Jalen Johnson

[Captain Canada]

Bucks played you a little tighter than you probably would have wanted with such a lackluster rotation.

Is there any growing concern that you don't really have a go-to guy yet that's a defined scorer? Doesn't really seem like you have a guy that can go get you 30 if you need it like you used to have (back in the day) with Trae Young.

[Sonny]

What is the CAPn looking like in the offseason and will you focus on a big signing or bringing in cheaper options to be able to sign more players? Any looming free agents that you are hoping to sign?

[redsox907]

prolly doing a draft class or a mailbag update next, so get your Q's in...

real class I'm assuming

why aren't you tanking for AJ

[supahotfire]

Nice job pulling out the dub. KPJ was chucking but with that squad the Bucks had.. he had to.

Jalen Johnson

yea they were decimated bro. and Kuz only played about 15 minutes coming back from an injury designation KPJ is a certified 2k bucket tho! as u know

prolly doing a draft class or a mailbag update next, so get your Q's in...

real class I'm assuming

why aren't you tanking for AJ

no sir... since im using the ATD roster, the ratings are different, so its going to be a fictional draft class to match the same type of ratings formula. and i dont own my own pick this year... mailbag coming up

[supahotfire]

Where the Peaches Grow
Atlanta Hawks Basketball
▰▰▰

The Mailbag
Everyone's Talking About Next Year, But What About Playoffs?!

---

The Mar 5, 2026 Edition -- We got a lot of questions this week, so I'll keep this intro short. Right now, Atlanta has the 10th seed — and by a good chunk. We just handled the Bucks (who are in 11th place) and extended our lead to about six games ahead of them. Still, it's all about positioning and we could still fall out of the race, but should we??

The answer: a resounding NO. No tanking here and let me tell you why. Atlanta owns Cleveland's and New Orleans' first round picks this year, so our final seed doesn't make a difference. This is about building the playoff experience and developing the team. With that out of the way, let's get to some questions and comments... which mainly have to do with future planning.

Here we go!

▰▰▰

Everything still within reach this season. What's the feeling looking toward the next one, it's hard to know what teams like Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami wants to make of their rosters

My Take: Right now, we're just focused on trying to sneak into the playoffs and hopefully win a few. I think it would go a long way to the development of this young roster. Like you said, hard to anticipate what others will do, and we also have to account for some stars returning next season: Tatum, Haliburton, AD and Trae in Washington... etc. Would love to continue getting better and compete next year, though.


▰▰▰

Digging the mailbag write up, nice little touch.

Had a nice lil' streak building up til' y'all got caught up in Portland's buzzsaw.

Who you liking on the team going into the final stretch?

My Take: Much appreciated! ...Portland got us, but three-of-four is a 75% winning percentage, which I'll gladly take. ...I can't lie here, Jonathan Kuminga has given me the most to be excited for. I'm not really considering him as a star of any sorts, but as an athletic dude who defends and runs the floor, he's been surprisingly efficient as a jump shooter as well, which really excites me for what he can provide moving forward. He's currently finishing games over Risacher.


▰▰▰

What position are you looking to upgrade in the draft or FA, or will it be BPA?

My Take: Good question! We have a lot of guys who play the same type of role, but I think we're sorely missing a true point guard. McCollum and Hield can really fill up the scoresheet, while Dyson Daniels and Alexander-Walker (even though he's been scoring better this year) are defensive-minded. We could use a prototypical, all-around floor general at point guard to run the offense. We also could use another big who can stretch the floor. Our forwards are all mostly undersized.

No preference as to building through the draft, free agency, or even making a deal (or a few). Have to see what options are presented come summer time.


▰▰▰

Bucks played you a little tighter than you probably would have wanted with such a lackluster rotation.

Is there any growing concern that you don't really have a go-to guy yet that's a defined scorer? Doesn't really seem like you have a guy that can go get you 30 if you need it like you used to have (back in the day) with Trae Young.

My Take: We definitely let our foot off the gas in the fourth quarter, but the win was never really in doubt to be honest.

And yes, definitely a concern... Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker are our top two scorers statistically, but if we need a bucket, CJ McCollum is the number being called. I think this has to be a top priority this upcoming offseason.


▰▰▰

What is the CAPn looking like in the offseason and will you focus on a big signing or bringing in cheaper options to be able to sign more players? Any looming free agents that you are hoping to sign?

My Take: As in "CAPn", I'm just assuming you mean salary cap? If so, there's about $40M-plus coming off the books, thanks in large to CJ McCollum's $30M expiring contract. He'll be 35 next season, so I expect he'd want to join a contender at this stage in his career. Feels like a potential Laker to me ...I think we need to make a couple moves to balance out the roster, but I think it also depends on how the team finishes out the season. We actually own two first-round picks as well, which gives us some flexibility.

[Sonny]

Everyone talking about the future, nobody looking at the playoffs. Time to be a true underdog and win the whole thing mate. Prove the doubters wrong.